Former prime minister Tony Abbott at Parliament House in Canberra, 13 August 2018.
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The Paris climate change agreement has been in the news again recently, due to a small rump of the federal Coalition railing against the national energy guarantee. With all the noise being made by a select – and uninformed – few, it has come time to debunk some of their tallest tales.

Before we jump into fact checking, let’s remind ourselves just what the Paris agreement is. Signed in 2015, it is the first truly universal agreement among nations to tackle climate change. It’s not perfect, but the agreement has boosted the momentum to clean up economies around the world.

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In response to the Paris agreement and the falling cost of zero emissions technology, more and more countries, businesses and investors are implementing policies to drive the transition to cheap and clean renewable energy. In 2017 alone, around 70% of new power generation installed globally was renewable energy, with more solar PV capacity being added in 2017 than that of coal, gas and nuclear combined.

The treaty has a number of key elements. Firstly, the objective of the agreement is not only to keep global warming “well below” 2°C above pre-industrial levels, but also to “pursue efforts” to keep warming to 1.5°C. This means global emissions must fall to zero by around 2050 – earlier in developed countries like Australia.

Secondly, the agreement requires action from all countries and, unlike previous agreements, these actions and targets need to strengthen through time. There is no room for us to go backwards.

Thirdly, the Paris agreement also involves a system of transparency and accountability where countries’ actions are reviewed by other nations.

Now to correct some of the fairy tales that appear to have embedded themselves in parliament.

Fact: Countries are imposing penalties on their major emissions sources to meet Paris targets

These policies include carbon pricing (countries representing 56% of global emissions are on track to be covered soon), renewable energy schemes (179 countries have renewable energy targets) and vehicle emissions standards (nearly 80% of new light duty vehicles sold globally are subject to some kind of emissions standard), to name a few.

Fact: Paris does apply to all countries and action is occurring

The Paris agreement has been ratified by 179 countries including Australia, the US, China, the EU, India and all other major emitters. US president Donald Trump has stated that the US intends to leave the agreement, but legally they cannot formally withdraw until November 2020. Trump’s America is the only country in the world to say it will renege on its commitments to the international community.

Despite Trump’s efforts, with clean technology costs falling and concerted action from US states, polluting coal plants are continuing to close and renewable energy and gas are expected to dominate the future of the US power system.

Both China and India have committed to emissions targets under the Paris agreement. China has committed to lower the carbon intensity of its economy by 60 to 65% below 2005 levels by 2030. India committed to reduce the emissions intensity of its economy by 33-35% below 2005 level over the same period.

Backed by government policies such as renewable energy support, plans to retire old coal generators, carbon pricing and energy efficiency standards, both countries are on track to achieve these targets well in advance of 2030. For example, India is projected to meet its 2030 target to get 40% of its electricity generation from non-fossil fuel sources eight years early.

Fact: More, not less, needs to be done to meet Paris objectives

The world is currently not on track to achieve the objectives of the Paris agreement. Substantial progress has been made but more will need to be done by all countries to limit warming to well below 2oC.

And we are just as culpable as any of the others. The Turnbull government’s measly 26-28% reduction by 2030 would, if replicated globally, doom us to around three degrees of warming and a world quite unlike anything humans have encountered before.

Meeting the ambition outlined in the Paris agreement is challenging but achievable. We already have the technology necessary, but we will need to use it, and fast. The main barrier to reaping the benefits of the transition to clean energy and avoiding severe climate change impacts remains political will, and this is something we can all do something about.